THOUSANDS OF WORKERS FURLOUGHED IN S.D.

Cabrillo among park service sites closed

Bonnie Phillips was among thousands of federal workers in San Diego County who were furloughed Tuesday because of the nation’s partisan-fueled government shutdown.

For Phillips, a ranger at the Cabrillo National Monument in Point Loma, it’s not the lost pay or the rancor in Washington, D.C., that bothers her most.

“The parks are here for the people and we want to be here to serve the people,” she said. “We have about 400 kids scheduled to visit in the next two weeks, and our centennial celebration is set for Oct. 12-14, and now I don’t know what’s going to happen.”

As Phillips and other federal workers wonder how long their furloughs will last, military families are facing higher grocery prices and county residents are losing access to an array of government services — all because of the shutdown.

Thousands of the county’s roughly 46,000 federal employees were notified Monday or Tuesday that their jobs were deemed “nonessential” to the safety and well-being of the nation. They were given a few hours to square away their work emails, update their out-of-office telephone messages and wrap up last-minute tasks before starting their furloughs.

Federal agencies that furloughed staff in San Diego County included the Internal Revenue Service and the departments of defense, agriculture and treasury.

At the region’s military installations, thousands of civilian Defense Department workers were furloughed, including 1,197 at Camp Pendleton, 328 at Marine Corps Air Station Miramar and 360 at the Marine Corps Recruit Depot in San Diego. The Camp Pendleton Naval Hospital remains open.

Five hundred civilian employees at local Navy bases fell into the nonessential category as well. Of that total, 302 work for the Navy’s regional office in downtown San Diego. The rest are from Coronado Naval Base (81 workers), the San Diego Naval Base (75) and the Point Loma Naval Base (42).

Base commissaries, where troops and their families get their groceries at prices generally cheaper than at civilian supermarkets, will close starting today. Base personnel were encouraged to do their commissary shopping Tuesday, with officials hoping to unload perishable fruits, vegetables and related goods so they wouldn’t have to be thrown out.

At the Space and Naval Warfare Systems Command, or SPAWAR, in Old Town, spokesman Steven Davis said about 1,500 of the command’s 5,000 workers were furloughed.

“It’s going to be a significant impact for the installation,” he said Tuesday morning. “We have about four hours to prepare for the shutdown, and we’re basically trying to wrap up as many things as possible before we depart the premises.”

About 300 Internal Revenue Service employees in the county were furloughed. They received the notice in an email after 9 p.m. Monday, said Malcolm Gettman, president of the National Treasury Employees Union’s Chapter 92. Gettman said employees are anxious about losing pay and the uncertainty of when a deal will be reached between Congress and the president.

“They are living on the edge,” he said.

For local residents and tourists alike, Cabrillo and other sites run by the National Park Service are off-limits during the shutdown. Recreation spots such as the Cleveland National Forest are closed until further notice, although the Palomar Ranger District’s Observatory Campground, Oak Grove Campground and Fry Creek Campground will remain open, officials said.

At the tip of Point Loma, ranger Ralph Jones worked a full shift Tuesday, turning away would-be visitors to the Cabrillo National Monument.

“Everybody else left today before noon,” Jones said of the park’s 22 staffers and the park foundation’s eight employees. The lighthouse, which marks its 100th anniversary this month, visitors center, tide pools and overlooks with views of the ocean and bay all were closed.

Anne and John Plattan, tourists from Germany, had heard the news. “But we kind of wanted to see the view from up here,” she said after climbing off a bus halted by the park’s entrance. “And I guess we can still catch that.”

If the vistas ignored Washington, so did death. At Fort Rosecrans National Cemetery, Tuesday saw 15 interments. There and at Miramar National Cemetery, burials continued on schedule, as these grounds have not been closed by the government shutdown.

Also operating as normal was the U.S. Postal Service, which handles its own budget. Transportation Security Agency airport workers and U.S. Customs and Border Protection inspectors and agents remained on the job, as did National Weather Service forecasters, U.S. attorneys and agents for the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Drug Enforcement Administration.

The shutdown on the start of the government’s new fiscal year came after the Senate refused to consider any of the Republican-controlled House of Representatives attempts to delay, defund or alter the Affordable Care Act, commonly known as Obamacare.

Democrats said the law has been legislated and litigated. Republicans — led by a segment of conservative lawmakers in the House — said they continue to object to the law on various grounds.

San Diego County’s five-member congressional delegation remained split along party lines.

Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Vista, said the onus for resolving the crisis is on President Barack Obama. “It’s irresponsible for him to refuse to negotiate with Republicans,” Issa said.

Joe Kasper, spokesman for Rep. Duncan Hunter, R-Alpine, said Hunter remains adamant that changes to Obamacare must be part of any deal.

Rep. Scott Peters, D-San Diego, said the shutdown is the fault of the tea party wing of the GOP. Peters also announced that he would forgo his congressional salary during the shutdown.

Rep. Juan Vargas, D-San Diego, said partisan politics are to blame. “I am extremely disappointed that Speaker (John) Boehner and House Republicans continuously blocked a vote on the Senate-passed Continuing Resolution that would have been signed by the president and avoided a ... shutdown.”